Joe Biden signs landmark law making lynching a hate crime

Kamala Harris and relatives of Ida B Wells and Emmett Till attend ceremony marking Emmett Till Antilynching Act

The first federal legislation making lynching a hate crime, addressing a history of racist killings in the United States, became law on Tuesday.

The bill, passed by the Senate this month, is named for Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955. Joe Biden signed the bill surrounded by Kamala Harris, members of Congress and top justice department officials. He was also joined by a descendant of Ida B Wells, a Black journalist who reported on lynchings, and the Rev Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Till.